Spotify playlist: https://spoti.fi/3fMsca5

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10cc – 10cc – Rubber Bullets

AC/DC – BACK IN BLACK – “Shoot to Thrill”

Al Kooper – I STAND ALONE – “Hey, Western Union Man”

Alice Cooper – KILLER – “Under My Wheels”

Aerosmith – GET YOUR WINGS – “Lord of the Thighs”

Alanis Morissette – Jagged Little Pill – “Hand in My Pocket”

Amanda Marshall – AMANDA MARSHALL “Dark Horse”

The Band – STAGE FRIGHT – “The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show”

Beach Boys – SUMMER DAYS (AND SUMMER NIGHTS!!) – “Girl Don’t Tell Me”

The Beatles – BEATLES FOR SALE – “Every Little Thing”

Bob Dylan – BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME – “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)

Bonnie Raitt – GIVE IT UP – “Too Long at the Fair” or 

Bonnie Raitt – LUCK OF THE DRAW – “One Part Be My Lover”

Boston – BOSTON – “Foreplay/Long Time”

Carole King – TAPESTRY – “So Far Away”

Cheap Trick – IN COLOR – “So Good to See You”

Stephen Stills -MANASSAS – “The Treasure”

Dave Mason – ALONE TOGETHER – “Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave”

Dido  -LIFE FOR RENT – “Sand In My Shoes”

Doobie Brothers – WHAT WERE ONCE VICES ARE NOW HABITS – “Another Park, Another Sunday”

The Doors – THE DOORS – “The End”

Elton John – DON’T SHOOT ME I’M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER – “Teacher I Need You”

Elvis Costello – MY AIM IS TRUE – “Alison”

Emitt Rhodes – EMITT RHODES – “With My Face on the Floor”

Fountains of Wayne – WELCOME INTERSTATE MANAGERS – “Peace and Love”

Gabe Dixon – LIVE AT WORLD CAFE – “Five More Hours”

Glen Burtnik – PALOOKAVILLE – “The Liar’s Club”

Hoku – HOKU – “Another Dumb Blonde”

Ian Matthews – WALKING A CHANGING LINE – “Shadows Break”

J.D. Souther – BLACK ROSE – “Your Turn Now”

Jackson Browne – LATE FOR THE SKY – “The Late Show”

James Gang – YER’ ALBUM – “Take A Look Around”

James Taylor – ONE MAN DOG – “Dance”

Jethro Tull – BENEFIT – “To Cry You a Song”

Karla Bonoff – KARLA BONOFF – “Someone to Lay Down Beside Me”

Kraftwerk – COMPUTER WORLD – “Computer Love”

Laura Nyro – NEW YORK TENDABERRY – “Captain For Dark Mornings”

Lee Michaels – BARREL – “Day of Change”

Little Feat – DIXIE CHICKEN – “Fool Yourself”

Loggins & Messina – SITTIN’ IN – “Same Old Wine”

Marc Cohn – MARC COHN – “True Companion”

Paul McCartney – McCARTNEY – “That Would Be Something”

Michael Hedges – WATCHING THE WORLD GO BY – “Woman of the World”

Todd Rundgren – THE BALLAD OF TODD RUNDGREN – “A Long Time, a Long Way to Go”

Ozzy Osbourne – NO MORE TEARS – “I Don’t Want to Change the World”

Pete Townshend – EMPTY GLASS – “A Little Is Enough”

Randy Newman – SAIL AWAY – “Sail Away”

Rod Stewart – GASOLINE ALLEY – “Gasoline Alley”

Rolling Stones – BEGGARS BANQUET – “Parachute Woman”

 

Roxette – JOYRIDE – “Watercolours in the Rain”

Ry Cooder – INTO THE PURPLE VALLEY – “Money Honey”

The Silencers – A LETTER FROM ST. PAUL- “A Letter from St. Paul

Simon & Garfunkel – BOOKENDS – “America”

Split Enz – TRUE COLOURS – “Poor Boy”

Steve Miller Band – BRAVE NEW WORLD – “Seasons”

Steve Winwood – BACK IN THE HIGH LIFE – “My Love’s Leavin'”

Sting – TEN SUMMONER’S TALES – “Fields of Gold”

Supertramp – CRIME OF THE CENTURY – “Crime of the Century”

Traffic – TRAFFIC – “40,000 Headmen”

The Tubes – THE TUBES – “Mondo Bondage”

Wendy Waldman – LOVE HAS GOT ME – “Lee’s Traveling Song”

Podcast: https://on.ft.com/3V8F5LY

Transcript: https://on.ft.com/3VbVTBD

You took a 30% haircut on your money.

Let’s say you sold your catalog. What did you do with the cash?

First you paid taxes, and commissions to your team: your manager, lawyer… So, the figure you read in the news, that’s not the net, far from it.

And then you’ve got to invest the money. Keep it in cash and you’re losing money. There’s not a single cash investment that’s keeping up with inflation. Sure, you could invest it in real estate, which has inherent value, but you can’t do that overnight, it requires research, kicking the tires. No, what most people do is put the money in the market. Sure, if they’ve got a good financial advisor, investments are hedged, it’s not all in stocks, there are bonds and so much else. But if you’ve been reading the financial news…the market is bad, overall. We’ve seen an uptick very recently, but the experts at the WSJ believe the market is behind reality, and has further to fall. Which makes sense, the market doesn’t always perform rationally, and people don’t want to believe their stocks are cratering, so false hope keeps the market at an unreal level, until…

And then there are those who bought the dip. The WSJ did an exhaustive study on this. Most of their assets are now underwater. It was different back in March 2020, when the market crashed and Michael Rapino and others bought stock in their companies to give the impression of solidity. The market crashed and soon went back up. No one expects that to happen today.

So, you got all that money from the publishing company, and now not only have you lost a significant amount of it, on paper at least, but you’ve also given up that yearly income your songs and/or recordings and/or royalty streams were generating, which is why the publishing company paid such a high multiple to begin with!

Which is going down. Hipgnosis drove the number sky high, supposedly 22x for Neil Young. You don’t see that number anymore, nowhere close.

22x. That means 22 times yearly earnings. Positively insane for old acts whose material is aging daily. Especially in a world where catalog means 18 months old. Then again, classic tunes have ascended somewhat, I point you to Spotify’s deep dive:

“Spotify for Artists: Catalog”: https://bit.ly/3yoTHgA

Artists tend to be terrible business people. It’s like that old Wimpy story, they’ll take 7x when they’ve got miles to go in their lives. Yup, they sell their songs or royalty streams and in some cases the money is recouped by the company in fewer than five years. Meanwhile, you’re done.

So, Neil Young sells out to the friendly Merck and…

“Old Man” is used in an NFL commercial. Sung by Beck, but…does Neil Young really want his classic number associated with a football game featuring aged quarterbacks? No, and he bit back online, which is all he can do, because he sold his songs:

“Neil Young Registers a Quiet Protest Against Beck’s ‘Old Man’ NFL Commercial”: https://bit.ly/3VezsvV

So you got a chunk of change and gave up your rights and you lost money on what was paid you. Sound like a good deal?

And then there’s when you sold. Bob Dylan was too early, he could have gotten more if he held out. As for Springsteen… What kind of bizarre world do we live in where Diane Warren refuses to sell her songs and the Boss makes a deal? Doesn’t artistic integrity stand for anything anymore? Don’t you want to control your assets? Think of how much money and time you put in creating them.

And as much as Springsteen got, history has always told us that these deals are underpriced, because those involved can’t see the future. Usually, the artist is influenced by the manager, who wants their commission. Colonel Tom Parker sold all of Elvis’s recording assets to RCA. Talk about a bad deal… That’s the gift that keeps on giving, to RCA, not Lisa Marie. And Peter Grant sold Led Zeppelin assets to Atlantic, thank god the CD came out and the company needed unforeseen rights and Led Zeppelin could cut a new deal. You see there’s always a way to make more money on music. That’s Merck’s pitch. And he’s right, but once you get involved with the money people…

It all comes down to money, and you don’t beat the banks or the professional investors.

No one foresaw huge inflation and concomitantly high interest rates. Investors want to get paid. And now song returns are below interest rates. And you don’t screw the banks. So Blackstone could end up owning all your songs, and if you think they care how they’re used, you’ve never met a banker. It’s all about return, baby.

So maybe you got a huge multiple. Maybe you’re doing estate planning. But most of these acts’ deaths are not imminent, especially not Springsteen’s. Dylan could live another fifteen or twenty years, think of how much more money he could make.

No one cares about your songs other than you. Get that straight. And those with percentage participations don’t like to sit at home and make no money. If there’s an opportunity, they at least want to kick the tires. And then you see the giant number and…

As publisher Randall Wixen says, show me one person who didn’t regret selling their catalog. I’ve never found one. It’s just that these new deals are…new. Then again, many of these acts must have seller’s remorse, after that market haircut. But it’s too late now, baby. They were getting those big checks every year, while they continued to own the assets which were growing in value, now they’re out of the game.

Listen to this podcast. Insiders know all this. But there are very few insiders.

Tune in tomorrow, Saturday October 8th, to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

Phone #: 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefsetz

1

This is where I get pissed off at my readers. Well, at least those who responded.

Number one, I DID NOT SWITCH TO T-MOBILE! This makes me crazy, not only the people who can’t read, but don’t read. Happens all the time. I write about something and I get scabrous e-mail from people that I didn’t mention this or that when if they only read what I wrote they’d see that I did! And then there are those who can’t read, don’t know what a quotation mark is. It never occurred to me that people would not see the bit about switching to T-Mobile was written by Om Malik. What I wrote was: “So I decide to e-mail Om (whom I’d referenced as “Om Malik” above, and one more time below) and this is what he said:”. And then I used quotation marks. But I got an insane number of e-mails asking me what I thought of T-Mobile. Crazy. This is why you can’t deal with the public.

Oh, you can give people what they want. They call that business. I’m interested in art.

As for T-Mobile… My inbox was also inundated with people testifying as to the service. This too makes me crazy. BECAUSE MOST OF THEM DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ELSE!

This is like when you ride the chairlift and ask people how they like their new skis. They bought ’em, THEY LOVE ‘EM! But for someone like me, who cases the market, who owns multiple pairs, has demoed many models, I know that there are distinct differences between the brands. Now a casual skier may not care, but… Bottom line, most Volkls are stiff and worthless in the bumps. You say your under 90mm-waisted skis are perfect for powder, when I own a pair of 118s, as do most who ski many days a year in powder country, because it makes it so much EASIER! The wider girth allows the ski to float. So if you’re happy with T-Mobile…

I’ve experienced T-Mobile. Many times at Vail.

Let’s start with Mid-Vail, I get high speed everywhere inside Mid-Vail, a lodge. Until recently, AT&T didn’t get any service whatsoever, now you don’t get high speed data, if you get data at all. As for T-Mobile… GOOD LUCK! I remember standing in zero degree weather at the top of Chair 26 waiting to meet a family and they never showed up. They ultimately e-mailed me from the village at the end of the day. THEY’D NEVER SEEN THE TEXTS!

Or on Skyline, #37, the main chair in Blue Sky Basin, which is miles from the village/base. We’re riding past Lover’s Leap and the phone rings and I’m talking and the person with me is stunned, positively stunned I tell you. There’s no cell service in Blue Sky Basin, everybody know that! So I asked her what cell service provider she was using…T-MOBILE!

Now in truth, not every service works in every location. So, you might be living where Verizon, where none of the providers has service. Buy the one that works. Although you really don’t have to, because of WI-FI CALLING! Yes, it’s free. It hooks up to your internet. Go into the Cellular settings. Verizon is very spotty where I live, but I’ve got no issue whatsoever, because of WI-FI CALLING!

And then there’s price.

My philosophy is different from most. I’d rather deny myself, save up for the best, rather than settle for the mediocre. Like when I purchased my stereo back in 1976. I could buy a receiver, or for the same price I could get an integrated amplifier with enough power to really sing, to never hear distortion. So I sacrificed for a year without FM in the home. And then bought a top of the line Yamaha tuner, not that it’s worth much these days. Ditto my Nakamichi 582.

But the landscape has changed. All these devices are cheaper and better. Frequently the best costs little more. Also, people don’t employ the big picture. I’ve actually talked to people who have a house budget of multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars, and then their dream home is ten to fifteen thousand more and they say NO! Crazy. You’re gonna live there for years! Like features in your car…don’t skimp, it’s a fraction of the overall price.

And let’s get back to the skis. No, let’s stay with the phone. The smartphone is a very powerful device and most people only use a fraction of its power. Like the video-recorder I purchased in the eighties, an NEC, which is mostly out of the consumer products business these days. It was almost a thousand bucks. But, the remote had a window and you could push buttons to record, it was positively simple. So, in the era when most people didn’t record on their tape machines (most didn’t start until the TiVo/hard drive era), I did. I didn’t watch anything in real time other than sports.

I am what they call a power user. And it’s fine if you’re not, but don’t confuse your needs with mine. You may not need the latest features, but I do. Don’t judge me. Because there’s plenty of stuff you’ve got that I don’t need at all.

And…

There’s price.

As referenced above, I’m willing to pay a premium for excellence. It’s kind of like a car. I used to drive BMWs, now I drive a Saab which is really a Subaru WRX. My 1985 BMW had a computer, a bunch of idiot lights for oil level and more, and my 2005 Saab…HAS NONE OF THIS! All it does is handle and accelerate really well. It’s got four wheel drive and turbocharging and it’s noisy and after buying it I realized you got something for more money. Do you get twice the car if you splurge for a BMW or Mercedes? Absolutely not. But you do get a bunch of stuff that is nice if you can afford it.

So, you’re happy with little rural coverage, you like saving money, kudos, good for you. But coverage is very important to me, and I’m willing to pay for it!

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2

Then there are those who e-mail me that they’re happy with their old phones, their 6s… What these wankers don’t realize is THOSE PHONES ARE NO LONGER SUPPORTED! So, these same people, who are usually oldsters uptight about privacy, don’t realize by saving money they’re leaving themselves wide open to hacking, because Apple no longer provides security updates for their phone. As for devices lasting forever…buy something inert, like furniture. And if everything was supported there’d be no progress. This is one of the reasons Steve Jobs’s return to Apple was so successful, he was willing to cast aside convention, write off legacy all together, in order to push the envelope into the future. But I get all this hate mail blaming Apple because it’s not making and supporting ten year old products.

As for those who say you don’t need a new phone, I point you to the power-using point above.

But even worse is the people who say you need no smartphone, that a landline is good enough. ABSOLUTELY NOT, NO WAY!

I’ll give you some examples. When my iPhone finally got service yesterday it started going wild, downloading phone message and texts from the previous two days. Like the text from the dentist looking for confirmation of my appointment today, which I had to book nearly two months in advance. They were gonna cancel it if they didn’t hear back.

Many other phone calls, important messages.

Point being THE WORLD ASSUMES YOU HAVE A SMARTPHONE, and if you don’t, THE JOKE IS ON YOU!

Forget utility. The internet is no longer new. Not only can you buy things online, you get endless confirmations from medical labs, even restaurants via text. And people expect you to be reachable all day. If you don’t get back to them for hours they think you’re being rude or have been in an accident. Don’t like it? Be my guest. But this is the world we live in today. The train left the station a long time ago.

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3

Dear Robert Lefsetz,

My name is Theresa, and I work in the Executive Office of Verizon.  I received your complaint from Manon Brouillette, EVP & Group CEO-VZ Consumer, and wish to speak with you to address your concern.

I would first like to apologize for any inconvenience that you may have experienced with our company.  I understand from reviewing your concern that you are without service

I truly appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns, as it helps us become better at what we do.

Please contact me directly at: _______________, Monday through Friday between the hours of 12:00 AM – 9:00 PM.  I look forward to speaking to you soon.

Regards,

 

Theresa

__________________

I called, she couldn’t help. She said she put the A-team on it and she would get back to me. I believed her, she was working for the muckety-muck, as for the senior technician who was supposed to get back to me from the day before…I’m still waiting.

So I left to go to Ralph’s house and when I got to his neighborhood, a road was closed. This was in the hills, it was twisty and turny, and at least half the streets had no sign. So, I was on my own. I’d printed a map and directions, but I hadn’t bothered to zoom in on the map pic so tight that every street was clear, it seemed unnecessary. But, the street I was supposed to take according to Google’s directions was closed. You need a smartphone to get around.

And when I got home, just before three, there was an e-mail with instructions, and they didn’t work.

But then Ray called.

Ray told me he was called “the e-Sim whisperer” at Verizon. I got tons of e-mail castigating Apple, but it was a Verizon problem, not an Apple problem.

So…

Ray kept sending me invitations to activate, and they never worked. We tried everything in the book. And then Ray asked if the phone was backed up to the cloud, which it was, so he said to erase it, which I did.

So now we start with a clean phone, and Ray says to skip cellular activation.

And after we set up the rest of the phone, we attacked it.

We went through four Verizon prompts to activate, and each and every one didn’t work. This was astounding Ray, but this is what was going on.

Meanwhile, since I was on the call with Ray for AN HOUR AND A HALF, we got to be best friends. Not only do I know where he grew up, his work career, but how he met his wife, where his kids go to school and what he does on the weekends. Because we were constantly waiting for things to work, and they did not.

And thank god I’m a power user. Do you know how many times I had to go in and out of the settings, read the ICCID number? Man, otherwise it would have taken days. As it was, mine was one of the longest phone calls Ray had ever been on. Most iPhone 14 calls last ten minutes, never mind people with other problems.

And when the phone finally activated, which was astounding, Ray said he was making a notation, for future reference, to spread to the company. Who knows what the problem was, Ray didn’t even know, the workaround that had worked for him for weeks didn’t work, but one thing is for sure, it was not Apple’s fault.

But eSIMS… I could list the advantages. But you’d rather have a physical SIM from the past. Like in your iPhone 6s.

So yes, a little after four thirty p.m. yesterday I got service. And maybe now I’ve completely recovered, well, not quite yet.

You see I’ve been a daily computer user since 1986 and my Mac Plus. And one thing I’ve learned is…if you have a major major problem it will always get fixed. But this was the longest I’ve ever had to wait for a fix. This time many Verizon techsters were stumped. Thank god I got to Ray.

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4

So, yes, I’m still on Verizon. I want that rural coverage.

And it’s not only rural… L.A. is a hilly town, Verizon delivers the most consistent service. Whenever the phone call drops out…it’s always T-Mobile or AT&T. And if you’re doing business, this is important. Your kid may not need the most reliable connections, but the amount you pay for your phone bill is a pittance compared to the amount you’re earning for a living.

If you scrimp and save, it’s to your detriment. I see it all the time, and the people you want to be in business judge you for it. I’d like to say otherwise, but this is the truth. They ask you if you’ve seen this streaming show… Don’t say you don’t have that service and you won’t sign up for it, say you haven’t seen it yet and then pay for the month! You can’t cut corners in business. You’ve got to spend money to make money. I’d like to tell you it’s untrue, but it’s a fact.

As for this screed… It was gonna be more detail about what happened in my conversations with Verizon but it would have gone over the head of almost everybody.

So I got hung up in pissing off my audience.

Oh, that’s another thing, you can present someone with the truth, even a picture, and they’ll deny it, stay with their old position. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t deliver the truth, some people will change their minds after the fact, but the truth is the truth.

And the truth is America has got crappy cell service. It’s much better overseas, everybody who’s been there knows this. As for T-Mobile being a good overseas option, I understand that. But, I can pay Verizon ten bucks a day in Europe or Asia or South America, and if I’m gone for ten days, it’s a hundred bucks. What’s that in comparison to the trip costs? What’s that in comparison to what you might make on the trip? It’s just like business class. Believe me, if you fly twelve hours in the back of the plane it’s going to take you a week to recover. That’s what business class is about, not showing off. Which is why American’s planes to NYC are now mainly business class, have been for years. A small first class section, maybe a third of the plane economy and the rest is business, with lie-flat seats. If people are paying, they want service, ergo the seats. And in truth, unless you’re going at the busiest time, business class to NYC from L.A. is affordable. Now overseas, that’s another issue, that’s where status and upgrades and points come in. But as to the number of points I’ve got…I’ve got no idea. It’s just not worth it to me to track them. I’d rather work trying to make more money than spend all that time getting credit card bonuses and combing the flights for one I can get for free… Time is the most valuable commodity, waste it at your peril.

Now I’m only reacting to those who e-mailed me. If the rest of you understood what I wrote, mea culpa.

All I know is I’ve now got service.

I’ve crawled from the wreckage into a brand new car!